Nikkei in 2-Day Slump, Nippon Steel to Invest $11 B in Capacity Overhaul

123jump.com Staff
04 Mar, 2015
New York City

Market indexes in Japan declined for the second day in a row and the yen traded near its 4-week low. Hitachi was forced to lift its bid to acquire signalling business of Italian defense and aviation company, Finmeccanica. Nippon Steel to expand its steel in unit in western Japan.

[R]4:30 PM Tokyo – Market indexes in Japan declined for the second day in a row and the yen traded near its 4-week low. Hitachi was forced to lift its bid to acquire signalling business of Italian defense and aviation company, Finmeccanica. Nippon Steel to expand its steel in unit in western Japan.[/R]

Stocks in Tokyo extended losses for the second day in a row and the yen traded near its 4-week low against the dollar.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 111.56 or 0.6% to 18,703.60 and the broader Topix index slid 9.82 to 1,517.01.

The yen closed at 119.60 against one dollar.

Stocks in Review

Hitachi, Ltd rose 0.3% to 806.20 yen after the Nikkei news said conglomerate was forced to raise its bid to around 260 billion yen or $2.14 billion for the railway and signaling business of Italy-based Finmeccanica, mainly due to the decline in yen and the emergence of a rival bidder.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp gained 1.6% to 321.30 yen after the steel producer plans to shutdown its blast furnace in Kokura of western Japan and invest 1.35 trillion yen or $11 billion to upgrade its facilities in next three years.

Nippon also plans to spend 300 billion yen in overseas expansion and 10% and targeted return on investment of 10& in fiscal 2017 from 7% in 2014.

Nitori Holdings Co Ltd slipped 1.2% to 8,010 yen after the furniture and interior good retailer forecasted operating profit for the year ending on February 20 to jump 5% to about 66 billion yen.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha slid 0.6% to 357 yen after the cargo shipping company plans to sell a wholly owned American cruise subsidiary Crystal Cruises to Genting Hong Kong for $550 million.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second-quarter of this year.

Sumco Corp tumbled 12.7% to 2,125 yen after the silicon wafer maker filed shelf registration to issue up to 60 billion yen or $501 million in shares. The proceeds will be used to buy back class A stock.

Tokyo Electron Ltd declined 3.6% to 8,899 yen after the industrial electronic products maker announced a management reorganization.